hunted • haymitch abernathy

two

two; FACELESS IMAGES

Confusion. Intrigue. Amusement.

Those were three emotions Ember would not have expected to feel once she was standing on her podium, listening to the countdown of the clock and taking in the strange sight of the landscape in the arena.

As she gazed at the tall buildings around her, the cracked footpaths beneath the podiums, flashing lights and all of the bright colours, she couldn't help but not feel those emotions.

Never, in all of the games that she had watched, had she seen an arena quite like this one.

Her eyes drifted toward the golden cornucopia and her eyes locked on a bag that was positioned about a foot away from it. Her eyes searched the podiums around her, taking in which tributes were near her so she could calculate each of their strengths and weaknesses due to their time in the training centre. Next, she searched for Burton, and upon being unable to find him, deduced that he was on the other side of the cornucopia.

"Ladies and gentlemen." The voice of Claudius Templesmith boomed, "Let the 55th Hunger Games begin."

As the timer on one of the buildings reached zero, Ember launched herself off of her podium and landed on the concrete with a loud thud before breaking into a sprint towards the bag she had previously claimed upon her inspection of the arena.

Screams echoed in each direction around her before she forced herself to ignore them as she pushed her legs to move faster, feeling the muscles in her legs burning as she had never pushed them to this limit before.

Finally, her arm circled through the bag strap and she looped her other arm through the other strap as she noticed a small knife next to a crack in the sidewalk. She quickly swiped the knife from the ground and turned to see the males from both District One and Two, Midas and Ashlar, standing before her with identical smirks on their faces.

"Time to die, Eight," Midas told her as they began to move toward her.

Ember shook her head, a smirk slowly spreading across her features.

"I don't think so." She replied as she propelled herself forward and punched Ashlar in the gut, causing him to double over in pain.

She quickly grabbed him by the hair and, in a quick motion, her knife slid across his throat soundly and he began to choke as blood spewed from his mouth.

"You guys were all talk during training, weren't you?" She spoke as she pushed Ashlar's dying body away from her and looked up at Midas, "I heard you discussing what you were going to do to me."

Midas slowly backed away, but with each step he took, she also took one more step closer to him, until finally, he decided to just run at her.

He was twice her size but she was much smarter and way more determined. Adrenaline ran through her veins and she could hear her blood roaring in her ears and she slammed her fist as hard as she could into the boy's trachea.

She heard a faint crunch from underneath her fist as the career tribute collapsed to the ground, wheezing as he clutched his throat violently.

Ember didn't give him another glance as she quickly grabbed his knife, along with Ashlar's slingshot before shoving them into her bag.

She heard footsteps behind her and quickly turned to see Ashlar's partner, Terra sprinting towards her, face set in stone, a snarl curling at her lip.

Ember stepped to left just in time for Terra to throw herself at the girl, but instead of meeting Ember's body, she met the asphalt with a loud and echoing crack. Terra quickly got to her feet and made a swing at Ember with her blade, which she just narrowly dodged and raised her fist just in time for it to connect with the girls already blood-stained face. Ember landed a few more punches to the girl's face, as well as receiving a few hits to her own before her back hit the smooth surface of the cornucopia and Terra got in her face.

"I'm going to kill you, Eight." She snarled.

"Funnily enough, you aren't the first person who has threatened me with death today." Ember spat as she grabbed Terra's shoulders and twirled their bodies so it was Terra who was against the cornucopia, and just as Terra raised the knife she held onto, Ember pulled her forward before slamming the back of the girl's head against the hard surface.

Terra's eyes widened and her body fell to the ground.

"I'm so sorry," Ember whispered inaudibly as she stared at the bodies of the three people she had just killed for a moment.

A scream broke her out of her state and she shook her head before adjusting her bag on her shoulder and sprinting away from the bloodbath.

It was that moment in which she knew that even if she didn't escape the arena, she would never be the same. She would always be a cold-hearted killer.

A murderer.

✦❀✦

She flinched as a bell above her head sounded, causing her to quickly enter the building and slam the door shut behind her.

Ember glared darkly at the small silver object above the door before she turned away from it and moved further into the room.

Small tables were scattered around the dimly lit room, some empty, others with glasses or plates atop of them. What appeared to be a rather large radio was positioned in the corner of the room next to where the floor was partially raised. A rather long benchtop was directly opposite to the door, stretching from wall to wall with a gap separating it, large enough for a person to walk through. Shelving lined the walls behind the bench, filled to the brim with bottles and glasses. Pictures lined the walls, some ripped and torn, others faded, and most seemed to be in perfect condition, but as Ember moved forward to inspect them, she noticed that none of the people in any of the photos had faces.

"What the hell?" She whispered to herself as she inspected the faceless people in the images, "What kind of arena is this?"

She had assumed that this was what the world was like before the Dark Days and she knew that the building she was standing in was a bar, similar to the one back home, but what she didn't know was why the Capitol had chosen to base this years arena on something that most of Panem longed for.

As she moved behind the bar and tossed her bag in the corner, before sitting down to inspect the contents of her bag, countless possibilities ran through her head, each more unlikely than the next, and as she found a blanket in her bag, she threw it over her legs before leaning up against the wall uncomfortably.

Maybe it's so we get a glimpse of what we want but can never have, She thought to herself as her eyes fluttered closed.

But before she could drift off to sleep, a beeping caught her attention and she glanced up just in time to see a parachute materialise out of thin air.

The tribute waited for it to be at arm's length away from her before she reached up to grab the metal cube that was attached to the parachute.

She pried open the lid to find a loaf of bread from her District, along with a note.

Ember reached for the note with shaking hands before reading the three words that were written on the small slip of paper.

Brilliant plan, kid.
-W

The ebony-haired haired girl grinned to herself before stuffing the note into her pocket and ripping a small portion of bread from the loaf and popping it into her mouth.

She began chewing just as the cannons began and as she swallowed the piece of bread, she had counted thirteen canons.

Thirteen tributes were gone, three by her own hand, and only eleven remained, including herself.

"Ten left." She said to herself as she gazed up at the peeling ceiling, "Only ten."

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i'm actually really proud of how to chapter turned out, but please let me know what you thought.

thanks for reading!

~r